The Montreal Canadiens organization has told the Gazette’s Habs Inside/Out to stop using the word “Habs” in their title.

I’ve been at work and have come home to this news and at this point in time, I’ve yet to find out why. It’s something I’m trying to wrap my head around. What does it mean? Why is it so? Does the Canadiens organization own the rights to the word “habitant” which describes early French-Canadian settlers and which is shortened to Habs as an endearing nickname for the Canadiens?

Does it mean it’s only the beginning? Will the team, slowly but surely, attempt to rid bloggers from having the name in their title? If the organization is more than pleased to hear 20,000 fans at the Bell Centre chant “Go Habs Go”, then why the problem elsewhere?

Like I said, I’ve just come home from work and haven’t had a chance to really dig deep and try to find the reasons behind this head-scratching decision from the Habs Canadiens people. But I’m mystified and disappointed. Never in a million years would I have thought it would come to this.

If anyone can find the reasons behind this, please let me know. I’m quite sad about this new development.

“Hockey has always been a game of weight and power, and a small man needed a great deal of skill to make it as a pro. I believe that speed and skill are the best ingredients of the game. I view the Canadiens as playing a very fast, slick game but not being bullied by anyone. I don’t want hoodlums, but I do want he-man hockey talent to meet all and any situations, to be able to win by whatever means are needed.”

Spoken by Leo Dandurand on Nov. 3, 1921, the day after he bought the Montreal Canadiens.

It means with a win the Habs can catch the Rangers sitting in 6th place, and come within two points of the Caps.

It means that 35% of players polled feel Washington is overrrated as opposed to 11% who feel Montreal is overrated. How can the Canadiens be considered overrated? Most media people outside of Montreal haven’t given this team a chance since the season began. I’ve yet to hear anyone on any panel give them a hope in hell. They should make the playoffs but not in easy fashion. So how come they’re overrated?

I used to track Montreal’s win-loss record on schedules – red for a win, red dash for a tie, and blue for a loss.

Below is my schedule from the 1966-67 season, the year Toronto last won the Cup, and although Montreal had a good team and made it to the finals, you can see that they endured slumps like now. In November there’s lots of blue as the team lost seven of ten games. And there are other examples throughout.

I guess I’ll be shameless and pitiful. This Habs blog vote which is now going on and which I’ve found myself in the final three, ends on Sunday. So I need votes because although it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things and is silly in many ways because there’s a lot of great Habs blogs out there, I still have my ego and self-esteem problems and all the other issues I have that I don’t want to talk about right now.

The link is this; Habs blog vote. The two great blogs in the running with me, Daily Hab-it and Four Habs Fans, are going to catch me if you don’t help because I know they’re coming on strong. But whatever will be will be.

But I’ll buy you a beer in Powell River. And I’ll give you an interesting tour of the town! And then we”ll stop for beer again!

No need to say much about the Thursday night coma-inducing performance by a team now mired in a five-game losing streak and managing once again to score one feeble goal and providing the Bell Centre faithful with absolutely nothing to be happy about except maybe the beer was cold.

Minnesota 3, Habs 1.

The Canadiens on this dismal night now find themselves in 11th place in the east and only two from 14th. You know what this means? It means Habs-haters everywhere, and there are more than enough, are wearing big silly grins and loving every sordid moment, every loss those Habs, those despised Habs, give them.

They’re revelling in our misery and they don’t even feel bad.

And Hab-haters will continue to rub their hands in glee until this team starts scoring. We need offensive explosions, at least from time to time, because one goal will not win many hockey games. (I do, however, remember one night years ago when Peter Mahovlich scored against Toronto with one second left in the game and the Habs won 1-0. Just another example of why there are Habs-haters.)

They also need to learn how to be aggressive. although now I’m starting to sound like Pierre McGuire. But he’s right. The Canadiens simply don’t strike fear in the hearts of other teams, and when they do try to be a bit physical, they end up in the penalty box as we saw on Wednesday in New Jersey. They need to play tough but somewhat legal. Like Dirty Harry.

All in all, lately has been quite dismal to say the least. But my gut says they’re going to turn it around.We’ve seen it other years where suddenly, almost without warning, things start to click. Lines magically find chemistry, pucks that were usually blocked start to find their way through holes, and games are won. It’s going to happen with the Habs. It’s just a matter of a little more time.

Random Notes:

Saturday on Long Island and Monday in Atlanta. And regardless of how they play in these two rinks, they’re going to be fine, starting in January.